Landing pike

I was flyfishing for pike with my good friend Asger on a lake recently, and we had fairly good success with these toothy critters. We hooked four fish and landed two - or rather: Asger landed two of which one was min and the other his own.

And this is actually the reason that I want illustrated instructions on how to hand land a pike. Because there is a way, which is harmless to both pike and man, while most other methods can injure either or both. Asger managed to injure himself, both the pikes were alright.

I was trying to describe to Asger how to grab the pike along the gill lid and let your hand slide up to the jaw, but did a very bad job of it, and he got his hand into the teeth on the gills of the fish, and actually hurt himself rather badly.

So I started hunting the web for good illustrations of the grip, which is good to know when fishing for pike.

I found a few good articles, but still lack a goo set of pictures or drawings of the exact grip.